Cathay Pacific adds Sapporo service, boosts capacity to Nagoya and Fukuoka

Cathay Pacific Airways today announced that it will add a third weekly flight to the northern Japanese resort city of Sapporo and deploy larger-capacity aircraft on existing daily flights to Fukuoka and Nagoya.

The additional flight CX580 to Sapporo will commence in June, in time for the start of the summer holiday season, increasing Cathay Pacific's frequency to three times a week. The flight will operate every Wednesday with an Airbus 340-300.

In order to provide a better weekend service, Sunday's existing Sapporo flight will at the same time be upgraded to a larger-capacity Boeing 747-400. Cathay Pacific inaugurated its Sapporo service in December 2001 with two weekly flights.

Elsewhere in Japan, from 30 March, the airline's existing daily flight CX510 to Fukuoka, via Taipei, will be upgraded to a larger Boeing 777-200/300 as will CX532, the existing daily non-stop service to Nagoya.

Cathay Pacific Director Corporate Planning Augustus Tang said: "The popularity of Sapporo as both a summer and winter holiday destination has driven demand for this additional flight and extra weekend capacity. There have also been signs of the wider Japanese market gaining strength, and we are pleased that we have the flexibility to respond to that by deploying larger aircraft on services to Fukuoka and Nagoya."